


Waking Up To Hope

by Candycandysweet



Category: New Dangan Ronpa V3: Everyone's New Semester of Killing
Genre: Alternate Universe, Angst, How Do I Tag, Hurt/Comfort, Implied/Referenced Self-Harm, Multi, Other Additional Tags to Be Added, Post-Canon
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-12-31
Updated: 2018-12-31
Packaged: 2019-10-01 16:16:46
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,878
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17247392
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Candycandysweet/pseuds/Candycandysweet
Summary: An AU where the cast for V3 actually all went to school with each other before being put into the game. It was all virtual reality and now the group is slowly but surely waking up from the Hell they were in. How will they get along with each other after that life changing experience?Just a little something I came up with while laying in bed at 3 a.m while thinking about interesting pregame personalities for them. I'm just writing this for the fun of it





	Waking Up To Hope

**Author's Note:**

> Hi, thank you for reading. I decided to make my pregame personalities for the cast to be somewhat opposite of the characters in game ones. I really hope you enjoy it.

Opening her eyes felt like the most tiresome activity she has ever performed in her life. She heard beeping, and muffled voices but all she could really focus on was how bright the lights were in this room and how much her head hurt. She slowly turned her head to see a woman leaning over her, a smile on her face as she observed and spoke to her. What was she even saying? She made it? What did she make? Once the fog in her head started to clear more she could finally start to understand the words being said to her.

"You made it," said the woman. "You made it through DanganRonpa."

With those words every thing came back to her.

She was Maki Harukawa, and she was one of three survivors in DanganRonpa, season 53.

~*~

The beds they sat on were kind of uncomfortable but Maki barely cared. The nurses finished the check up on her and now left her in the room staring at Shuichi and Himiko who were very much alive as well. The medical equipment hooked up to Maki was identical to the stuff hooked up to them. Shuichi had his hat on and a devilish grin on his lips while Himiko looked far off and lost.

Team DanganRonpa representatives came in and explained the situation to the three. They were to stay in their facility until the entire group woke up. Once the others were awake they were going to start group therapy, they said that getting therapy for them all separately was too tedious which made Maki scoff. They were getting prize money for participating and they were going to be able to see their families again. They would return back to their school and relatively return to their normal lives when all was said and done.

The room the three were in was easily described as eerie. The calculated beeps rung through the room and 16 beds were in it, eight on one side and eight mirroring it on the other. The eight across from Maki's bed had Himiko, Shuichi and the murders in the Killing Game. On her side were all the victims. Maki felt sick at the sight of all her previously dead 'friends'. If she turned her head she could see Rantaro laying in the bed right next to hers, looking lifeless but still breathing steadily.

"What's with the look Maki Roll, did you not enjoy the game?" Saihara asked after some time, voice raspy and slightly delirious. Yumeno huffed in clear irritation.

"We get it, you get a hard on for DanganRonpa, it's getting old." The laziness in her voice was gone and Maki could recognize the slightly familiar annoyance.

The Maki in the game hated the Killing Game. Maki now was... indifferent. She joined it for Rantaro who was bent on going back for another round. He told her that he would end it this time around, no matter what. Maki just shrugged and promised her best friend that if he was to go through it again she would go with him. It felt surreal to do the interview, going through the lines that Rantaro made for her to say to make her seem 'interesting' enough to be a part of the cast with her other classmates.

Her classmates. They all signed up for this mess, she wasn't close to any of them but she knew them. The weak ones like Chabashira, Hoshi, Iruma, and Ouma. The leader types like Gokuhara, Akamatsu and Yumeno. The weirdos with shitty lives like Yonaga and Shinguuji. Maki knew them all in a way and she had a special distaste for some of them.

"Are you going to stay quiet and mopey over there forever?" Shuichi asked with a smirk. "I wonder how much people liked this season, the deaths were absolutely gruesome and definitely a step up from season 51 or 52." Maki sighed and started to tune out Shuichi's rambling and looked over at Rantaro.

This felt like hell.

~*~

The class watched the teacher introduce the new student with little interest as he bowed and said his name. Kiibo Idabashi. Shock white hair and electric blue eyes were the most apparent features of the boy. He was told to sit next to Himiko, the red headed girl snarled at him as he sat down and he only looked at her with a slight grimace. Maki rolled her eyes at the red head's reactions and looked over at Rantaro who smiled lazily.

"A new kid, huh? Who's group do you think he'll flock to? My bets are on Gokuhara, you know how he loves his kicked puppies and Idabashi looks like one," he says.

That makes Maki chuckle as she eyes Idabashi a bit more. "Nah, he's definitely all Akamatsu's, he seems too put together to hang with Gokuhara and the messy squad." The two both start to laugh and the teacher hushes them with in annoyance.

The two have taken note of groups that have been spawned in their classroom overtime. The ring leaders were Akamatsu, Yumeno, and Gokuhara. The three of them over time have divided the class into squads of people who will follow them. Maki found no reason to like the three, they were cruel bullies that seemed full of spite and needed a way to release it. The people who followed them seemed to be infatuated with them though which was strange to Maki but she left it at that.

"By the way, dude, the applications for DanganRonpa season 53 are about to come out soon, you still gonna tryout?" Rantaro asks me. Maki snorts and shoots him a small smile.

"Of course I am, we promised to go through this next season together right?"

~*~

The place was decently sized. There was the large room that accommodated the group and down the hall to the right was the dining hall. There was also a little hobby room where they could play games and do things in and across from it was the therapy room that wasn't in use yet. Group therapy only? Maki knew that was not going to be enough for the stuff that they went through. She also knew that some of them already had problems outside of the Killing Game too. Maki sighed and wandered into the hobby room where Saihara was sitting and reading a book.

The hobby room was... cute? Kind of like a child's playroom in a way. The walls were a sky blue color and there was a colorful rainbow rug on the ground. They had coloring books, a chess board, card games. In the middle of the room was a round activity table and a bookshelf in the corner of the room. She took a seat. 

"Hey there Maki Roll," Saihara greeted with a smile.

Maki's expression grew dark as she snapped, "Do not call me that."

Saihara snapped his fingers and laughed lightly. "There's the Ultimate Assassin that we all know and love!"

"Saihara, shut up. That's over now, we're done."

"Mhm, we sure are. And I think DanganRonpa is done too." Maki gives him a questioning look. "Remember our little rebellion at the end of the game, I think that may have changed people's perspective of the whole Killing Game. I don't know for sure but it is a strong bet, and when we get out of here can continue to tear Team DanganRonpa down."

Maki shook her head in shock and pinched her arm discretely. Saihara Shuichi, Ultimate DanganRonpa fan wants to end it all. The franchise that she heard him talking to Shirogane about every time she walked into the classroom. That Saihara is saying he wants to rip apart the thing that he obviously loves the most.

"Why?"

"Why?" Saihara starts to chuckle which breaks into full out laughter. "Because the game is totally fucked for good. Our in game selves have probably upped the rep for Anti-DanganRonpa supporters. It's gonna go down in flames so why not help finish it. The quality for the show is definitely gonna go down and I don't feel like watching absolutely shitty seasons." He smiled at Maki widely. "So how about we end it, let's do what your dear Amami was wanting to do." A hand was outstretched to her.

Maki shakily grabbed and shook it with a nod

~*~

Rantaro woke up easily, it was admirable how calmly he woke up, like he wasn't brutally murdered in a Killing Game. Maki was sitting in her bed reading a book she had found in the hobby room when she heard mumbling coming from the bed next to her. When she turned to look at him she saw his green eyes staring right back at her and she was immediately on her feet to get the nurses. The nurses were on him, checking on him intently. They kept asking him questions, way more than the other three had to answer. Maki listened to him calmly answer them in succession with his familiar easygoing smile. Once his check up was done and he was able to sit up Maki rushed to hug him.

Saihara and Yumeno came back to the room after getting food from the dining hall and stopped dead in their tracks. Both of them scurried over to his bed side. Maki glared at Saihara in a warning to not immediately start drilling him down with information about what happened after he died. Saihara caught her look and nodded, deciding to resort to just asking Rantaro about how he was feeling. Rantaro happily fell into conversation with them and Maki has never felt so relieved.

Akamatsu was the next to wake up, with a whole lot more fanfare at that. She screamed and her hands shot up to her neck and started to scratch. Maki watched the nurses rush in and start to help Akamatsu calm down. The way Akamatsu started to try to twist out of their grip and the look in her eyes told Maki that this was going to take a while. After a bit the nurses settled her down enough to be able to check on her, purple eyes settled down from the crazed look they opened up with. As they asked her questions and checked her vitals her eyes made their way over to Maki's, Maki quickly glanced away and headed to the hobby room to find Saihara.

Saihara was playing a game of chess with Yumeno who's eyebrows were crinkled with concentration when Maki entered. "She's awake," Maki says as if that's enough information for them to know who was awake now. It was enough. The three rushed back into the room to see Akamatsu sitting in her bed with a far away look. Maki didn't know what to expect when Saihara and Akamatsu met up again. They weren't in the game anymore, they were the people they were before and Akamatsu and Saihara's relationship beforehand was not as lovey dovey.

"Hi Saihara, it's been a while, huh?" Akamatsu smiled as she said that. Not the smile of the Akamatsu in game though. Maki could tell. "This season sure was interesting."

"It was, wasn't it," was Saihara's only reply as he walked to his own bed next to hers to sit down. "By the way you guys have been waking up I think it's safe to assume Hoshi will wake up next."

"Why him?" Rantaro asked with confusion painted across his face. The whole time he sat in his bed watching everyone.

"Well he died next," Saihara beamed. "In a suicidal way which surprises no one. I'm a little surprised they kept his suicidal tendencies but decided to completely take away his obsessive personality. But hey, Kaede was a goody two shoes with a heart of gold and hope in humanity." Saihara recalled. Akamatsu just scoffed at that comment.

That was true. Maki knew the group before the game and some of the strongest people in game were the weakest people out of it. Rantaro shrugged, "That's the tricks of Team DanganRonpa. They really like to mix it up."

~*~

It came to a surprise to the group when after six days Momota was up and cursing, his fowl mouth immediately in action. Once again Maki watched the rush of nurses but she felt an especially fowl taste in her mouth. With the way Rantaro and Akamatsu woke up it felt like they had some sort of system. They were initially waking up in order of their deaths but now Momota was up and being checked out while Hoshi laid practically lifeless. The checkup was over and Akamatsu was on her boyfriend. She gently laid kisses all over his face as she mumbled something about how she was right about humanity. Maki blocked it out and looked at Rantaro who had a glare set on his face.

"I know you don't like him but it doesn't mean you should look at him like that," Maki said dryly. Rantaro shook his head and looked back at her.

"It's not just that, I'm just worried now. If Momota woke up before six people that died before him, what does that mean for the rest?" 

"I don't know, how did your other group wake up?"

"In order of death, it's typically supposed to work like that," Rantaro's eyes cast downwards. "Only one girl was passed over in the wake up order and she almost didn't make it. I'm just a little worried, that's all."

~*~

A week later Gokuhara was shouting obscenities as he woke up grabbing for his stomach with one hand and grabbing for his face with the other. The sound of his voice made everyone jump awake. Unlike everyone else who woke up during the day, Gokuhara was up and yelling at two in the morning, causing everyone to groan and wake up as the rooms blinding lights were turned on as the group of nurses started their process. With lights on, Maki could see the look of confusion and fear in Gokuhara's eyes and she felt bad.

Gokuhara did not bring the fun and happy aura to the group like in game him did. Instead, everyone had to deal with his blank face and his angry looking eyes. Maki took notice of how angry Yumeno was with him being awake though but they never had confrontation. Until one day, while Maki was sitting in Rantaro's arms on his bed while mutually reading a book, Yumeno went and approached Gokuhara.

"So your dumbass gets to wake up, huh? Seeing you up and moving makes me want to puke in my mouth." Yumeno gagged for effect at the end.

Gokuhara looked at her innocently and then placed a hand to his face. "Why is Yumeno so mad? Gonta doesn't know what he did wrong. Gonta is just happy to see his friends again!" He exclaimed with a joyful smile.

Yumeno grunted and flipped him off. "You're not fooling anyone with that bullshit. We got our memories back and your in game self is dead to us now."

"Wow, I don't remember you being this smart. At least they kept one thing the same in game for you, you still weren't that bright." Gokuhara's mocking tone was getting to Yumeno as her face started to turn a vibrant red. "What's wrong? Cat got your tongue?" He snickered.

"Shut up!" Yumeno shouted.

"Or what? You gonna cast a spell on me Ultimate Mage. I kind of miss that version of you, she was so cute and sweet and now we all have to face the reality of your little bitchy self. I bet Yonaga, Chabashira and Shinguuji are really going to miss your in game personality."

Maki tensed at that comment.

"Don't even talk about them like you know them, at least I give two shits about my friends but obviously you don't!" Gokuhara's face stoned over a bit and Yumeno smirked. "I got you didn't I? I've been sitting by their bedsides all the time waiting for them to wake up and you've done what? I think you looked Hoshi and Tojou once. You can barely look at Iruma. I bet you must feel like a real piece of shit for killing one of your friends with your own two hands. I knew you were a dick but damn."

That must of snapped something inside of Gokuhara because his stoned face quickly changed to rage as his hands started to shake. Rantaro's hold on Maki tightened as they watched the two. Gokuhara's hands shot up to his head and he started to pull at his hair as tears started to form in his eyes. His eyes squeezed shut as he started to yell.

"SHUT UP YOU BITCH! I DIDN'T KNOW! I DIDN'T MEAN IT! GONTA DID NOT WANT TO HURT MIU! MIU WAS NICE! GONTA WANTED TO HELP FRIENDS! GONTA IS SORRY! GONTA REALLY DIDN'T REMEMBER!" Maki sat frozen in fear and Yumeno stepped back from Gokuhara's bed. His mantra of 'Gonta's sorry' and 'Gonta didn't know' was filling the room. Rantaro let go of Maki and glided over to where Gokuhara sat, curled in on himself sobbing.

Maki got up, followed and watched Rantaro climb onto the bed with him and wrap an arm around his shoulders as he starts to whisper to him and hum. Rantaro makes eye contact with Maki and nods his head towards Yumeno. She nods in response and grabs Yumeno by the wrist to drag her out of the room into the hallway.

"What the hell was that?" Maki asked angrily. The red headed girl casts her eyes downward.

"I was pissed that he woke up before Angie and Tenko," she responds. "He's always been a hardheaded dick, I didn't expect him to snap like that."

Maki understood how she felt. She wasn't really close to anyone else besides Rantaro but she did feel some of them deserved to wake up more than others. It was a cruel thought but it was one everyone in the group had.

"I do feel bad about doing that to him though, the Killing Game experience makes me want to be a better person then I used to be. I wanna be more like the Ultimate Magician Himiko. Not the short bitchy girl that bullies people to compensate for her own insecurities." Maki's eyes widened at that confession as Yumeno crosses her arms. "Don't be surprised that I told you this, you're one of the few people I can trust since I don't have Angie or Tenko. We went through that entire thing together. I feel like we've grown a little closer," she says with a shy smile.

Without warning Maki decides to wrap her arms around the smaller girl in a hug. "I feel like that too." Yumeno's smaller arms slowly wrap around Maki and she hugs back tighter than the brunette was expecting. Maki starts to hum to herself and rub Yumeno's back, feeling her shake in her hold. 

Yumeno eventually let go and sniffled, rubbing at her nose. Maki grabbed her hand and led her back into the room. Gokuhara had his head in Rantaro's lap as Rantaro gently ran a hand through the larger man's long hair. He placed a finger up to his lips and winked at the two girls. Yumeno let go of Maki's hand to scurry over to Yonaga and Chabashira's beds. Maki decided to go sit next to Gokuhara's.

"I calmed him down after a bit and he dozed off," Rantaro whispered.

"You're good at calming people down," Maki whispers back to him.

Rantaro's eyes softened as he looked down at Gokuhara. "I'm a Killing Game veteran, a few people from season 52 acted like this sometimes and I guess hanging out with you gave me a more motherly personality. You always worked good with kids and people in general and made them feel better." Maki shrugs at his compliment and lets her eyes focus on Gokuhara again, taking note of the dried tear streaks on his face. She remembered his torn up and fearful face covered in tears during his trial and it made her turn away.

"This stuff is really going to mess us up," she says drearily. Rantaro only nods.

~*~

There was a bit of a dry spell with people waking up after Gokuhara. It's been a week and no one else has shown signs of waking up. The nurses would come in and check their vitals and see if they were stable and then say they would wake up soon. Rantaro was starting to feel bad for waking up though, even if he wouldn't tell Maki, she could still tell. He explained to her that they had a lot of risks with throwing him back into the game and pulling his memories again. Which was why he was so forgetful in the game. They said he had a slimmer chance of waking up and if he did they expected him to have no memory. Maki was grateful for her friend waking up just the way he was before.

Gokuhara has started to look at his friends now. He would wander over to Tojou's bed and comb a hand through her hair, or sit next to Hoshi's bed and rub his arms like he used to as a nervous tick before the game and when Gokuhara thought people weren't listening he would whisper apologies to Iruma. The group could see the regret deep down in the larger man's eyes and could tell he felt something towards the people he was friends with. 

Yumeno was no better. She would solemnly sit next to Yonaga and Chabashira's bed since they were next to each other. Every now and then she would shuffle to the other side of the room to sit with Shinguuji, cursing under her breath as she holds his hand about how much they fucked him over. Yumeno always was a bit on the rough side, angry and spiteful for reasons unknown to most.

Momota and Akamatsu was another story completely. They stuck with each other constantly, practically attached at the hip. At first it felt like they never cared about Ouma with how little they even looked as his stagnant body but after a while Maki noticed how often they would migrate towards him. The two would sit next to his bed and talk to him under their breaths in a way so sweet Maki would not expect it from them.

~*~

Maki was lost in thought when she walked into the bedroom to see only Momota in there sitting next to Ouma's bed. Once he took notice of the girl he looked up and smiled at her

"You okay?" She didn't know what else to say. They were so close in the game but now Maki didn't really know how to talk to him.

His smile wavered and his eyes went down to Ouma's hand which was held in his, his thumb idly stroking against the pale skin. "Not really," he lets out a wet chuckle, "Before this shit show we used to hang around all the time. We would talk about DanganRonpa with Kaede and about how all three of us were going to make it in together. We would get the fame the fortune and Kaede would get to experience her favorite show firsthand. But looking back on it, that shit sucked." Maki nods in response. The glamour must really ware off after experiencing it. "Kichi was hellbent on ending that game while he was in there. He was so mentally strong and determined and he told me that his plan was definitely going to work. I feel sorry for fucking it up, you know?"

"You didn't do bad though, you worked really hard until the very end. When he wakes up he's going to be happy you did that."

"If he wakes up..."

"When," Maki says sternly. "Everyone in this room is going to wake up and we are going to start resolving some shit, I'm sure of it." This blind hope and optimism reminded her so much of in game Momota that it hurt but she knew someone had to do it.

"You're a good person Harukawa."

"Someone has to be."

~*~

The feeling of relief everyone felt when Yonaga woke up was mutual. Her body shooting up and right back down in a dizzying effect as the nurses started to rush into the room. Yumeno was trembling, eyes watery from unshed tears. Maki could see the quivering smile playing gently on the girl's lips and she smiled too. As others came to the room and saw Yonaga sat up in her bed hugging Yumeno, Maki could see the same light in their eyes. Hope. Yonaga was giving them all undeniable hope. The dry spell was over, the others can still wake up. 

Yonaga was shaky for sure, her eyes darted around as she slowly took in the surroundings until her eyes landed on Shinguuji's bed. She just stared at him without moving and Yumeno gently raised a hand towards her face and directed Yonaga's pale blue eyes back towards her. Soft whispers were exchanged between the two and Yumeno gently placed her forehead against Yonaga's in a way that seemed to ground her. Maki watched in silence and felt almost like she was intruding in a private moment and decided to direct her attention back to Rantaro, who gave her a bright look.

"Maki, they still have a chance," he exclaimed.

"Yeah, they do."

~*~

Shinguuji was another screamer, seemed to be common in people who were executed. He was shaking and yelling something about his sister. Luckily Yumeno was in the room at the time because he seemed to only calm down when she started to talk to him. She ordered the nurses to grab him a surgical mask to put on and one of them quickly followed the task. Once Shinguuji was calm enough and had the mask on Yumeno stepped back to let the group do their job. The nurses said their thanks and went to work. Maki distantly wondered what their names were but then scratched the thought out of her head when she remembered they were apart of Team DanganRonpa. She really did not care to learn more about those cruel people.

When Shinguuji started to spout apologies at Yonaga she only waved them off and grabbed him in a gentle hug. Tears fell from Shinguuji's eyes as he hugged the girl tightly. "I forgive you Kiyo," Yonaga repeated again and again. That seemed to only make the tall boy shake and cry harder.

"You really shouldn't," he sobbed.

Yonaga shook her head. "I really should."

~*~

"God this place sucks ass!" Momota exclaimed as the group of awake students ate their food. "This food is bland as hell and they ain't got any windows here."

"Don't want anyone spying on the past participants of DanganRonpa," Gokuhara grunted as he shoved more food in his mouth.

Maki watched Akamatsu snag a piece of hamburger off of Momota's plate and chuckled when the purple haired male shot a glare at her. "We just gotta wait for the others to get up and then we can start our group therapy," Yumeno commented.

Everyone around the table groaned. It's been two months since the first three of the group woke up. Four days since Shinguuji woke. Hope wasn't completely lost for the rest but it was fading from Team DanganRonpa, they were getting tired of taking care of them. Whenever any of them asked about what was going on in the outside world they got vague answers and nothing else, leaving them feeling disconnected from reality.

"What if they don't wake up though," Saihara said in a lazy tone. 

Maki shot him a cold look before pointing her chopsticks at him. "They will wake up, don't say such negative things."

"You can't blame me for thinking that though, we are blindly trusting in hope at this point." Saihara takes a sip of his drink and eyes everyone. "We are getting to our weaker willed classmates at this point and I'm honestly worried too even if you guys wouldn't expect that from me. I was friends with Ouma and Tsumugi but I'm not sure if they are strong enough to get up."

Saihara's words hung over everyone. Gokuhara spoke up. "I have faith in Tojou, she's always been strong but Miu and Ryoma worry me." A pained look of concern covered his face. 

"I don't think Tenko is gonna make it," Yumeno said with tears in her eyes. Yonaga wrapped an arm around her. 

"Kokichi has always been weak as hell," Akamatsu mumbles.

A loud slam resounds through the dining hall as they watch Momota stand up with his hands on the table. "Stop all this moping Goddammit!" Everyone stares at him in shock. "It doesn't matter how weak we think they are, their asses are gonna get up! We are not just going to give up on all of them like that! We have to keep believing in them, no matter what!"

After Momota's speech everyone jumped as they heard a bloodcurdling scream and they were all on their feet before they knew it.


End file.
